Gothic Horror

When “The Yellow Wall Paper” was first written it was understood as a horror story; Society at the time did not understand its true meaning until later on in history. Gilman, the author of “The Yellow Wall Paper”, never intended his story to be Gothic Horror, but with the story being focused around the mental illness of a woman, many viewed it as just that. This story proves the statement “women have been socially, historically, and medically constructed as not only weak, but also sick” (Suess). The narrator’s husband is a doctor at the local hospital and insists on treating his ill wife however, her illness goes farther than just simple Depression, Anxiety, or Schizophrenia. Since the story takes place in the nineteenth-century, views of women
Unlike the narrator, he is named and untimely makes all the decisions regarding the narrator. If the narrator was taken literal, one might believe there is a woman behind the wallpaper and that her husband was indeed nice and caring. Although we never quit understand if the narrator’s view of the situation is actually what is happening, readers can gather enough information to see the truth. The narrator states that John has “no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures" (Gilman). In the middle of the story the narrator tries having a conversation with John about going to visit her cousins, but after he says no she eventually breaks down into tears. At this point one could assume she realized she has lost her mind since her husband has done nothing but make her illness worse by denying her basic rights to
She loses her grip with the present, as the wallpaper becomes a bigger focus that reality itself. She traces the patterns with her mind and stays focused on them for very long periods of time saying “I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion” (Gilman). After time goes on, she is positive someone is trapped in the wall paper and tells her husband. John is skeptical as he knows his wife is ill. Eventually the narrator becomes consumed with the idea of a woman behind the wallpaper to the point she does not even sleep at night. Haney states that she even begins writing her own thoughts over the wallpaper because “she lacks such a voice so she practically recoups her loss by writing it on the wall”. One can assume that the woman is the narrator and the wallpaper is her husband as he is constantly holding her back like the wallpaper does the women behind it. People who lose their mind often feel trap in their own thoughts, or as in the narrator’s case behind a symbolic sheet of